ARLINGTON — An Arlington man was jailed Wednesday night as the central figure in a bizarre and deadly chain-reaction crash and shooting hours earlier.
The impact of the high-speed crash killed one person; a second person died as a result of gunfire and two children and an adult were injured.
Police said it apparently all started at 1:40 p.m. with a hit-and-run accident involving a blue Cadillac Escalade driven by Thomas Lester Harper, 27, of Arlington. His luxury SUV was involved in the wreck with two other vehicles at North Collins Street near Washington Street.
Police said Harper's vehicle — with his twin toddlers along for the harrowing ride — sped away from the scene; witnesses followed in an attempt to get license plate information.
"He probably was doing 100 down northbound Collins," said witness Billy Ray Vaughn.
The speeding Escalade apparently triggered a chain-reaction crash at Collins Street and Brown Boulevard, resulting in an eight-vehicle pileup.
The Escalade plowed into the back of a Dodge pickup truck that was stopped at the intersection; its driver was pronounced dead at the scene; his name was not released.
Witnesses said the driver of the Escalade then pulled out a gun and killed a person who walked up to the SUV in the moments following the crash.
Francisco Quintana offered a chilling account of what happened. "I hear a gunshot and then I see the guy fall, his hat fly off. His head hits the curb; I just see blood rushing down and turned around and started running back up here," Quintana said.
"By the time I got here, it was ugly," Vaughn added. "He fired the gun and we all hit the ground. One of the little kids on the driver's side actually fell out of the window and crawled across the street when one of the witnesses picked him up."
It was not immediately clear whether the gunshot victim had been involved in the crash or was trying to offer help.
Police took Harper into custody at gunpoint. He was hospitalized for treatment of injuries, but was later jailed to face charges of murder and intoxication manslaughter.
No bond was set.
"He was acting kind of weird; kind of like laughing and screaming and hollering," Vaughn said. "He wasn't too concerned about two little kids in the back seat."
Arlington police spokesman Lt. Chris Cook said investigators were still trying to sort out precisely what happened. "As more details emerge from the actual timeline of events, we'll be able to determine that later."
The two toddler-age children in the Escalade — Harper's son and daughter — were hospitalized. Their injuries were not believed to be serious.
Another adult was also hurt in the crash at Collins and Brown. He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth for treatment of minor injuries.
The intersection of Collins and Brown was closed into the evening hours as police took pictures, measurements, and statements from witnesses.
E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com and ccivale@wfaa.com and sstoler@wfaa.com
